Many victims reluctant to file cases fearing I-T action

Mysore:  The number of cases registered in the city in the multi-crore I Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam has gone up from about 1,600 to more than 1,900 cases. Out of these, nearly 1,300 cases are registered at Udayagiri Police Station and the remaining in Nazarbad, Mandi and Lashkar Police Stations.

Even though the number of complaints has trickled down in the last few days, a source close to a victim, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Star of Mysore today that though there could be more victims in this multi-crore scam in the city itself, many of them were hesitating to come forward to file complaints as they fear that the Income Tax (I-T) Department could follow their trail.

They may have invested from many sources of income in the IMA in gold and jewellery for which they cannot provide proof and hence they were reluctant to file complaints, the source added.

All the cases will be bunched and submitted to the Cyber Crime and Economic Offences Wing at the CCB premises on Ashoka Road and this will in turn be sent to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Bengaluru, probing the IMA Jewels scam, said Inspector Krishnappa, speaking to Star of Mysore here this morning.

It may be recalled that Mysureans have invested more than Rs.63 crore in the Ponzi Scheme floated by IMA and this could go up further.